The On-line Journal of Genetics and Genealogy will highlight the connections between the science of Y and X chromosome, mitochondrial, and autosomal DNA analysis and genealogy. Reference will be made to scientific and genealogy articles which complement each other and advance the study of recent family history and ancient human migrations.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

The 7th Genetic Genealogy Conference for Family Tree DNA Group Administrators November 5-6, 2011
To be held at the Sheraton North Houston
15700 John F. Kennedy Boulevard
Houston, TX 77032
(281) 442-5100
Book a Room at the Sheraton North Houston at a Discount
*The Sheraton website has a known issue with the Chrome browser. To visit their site please try another browser.

Wednesday, August 03, 2011

The link above goes to a page that has charts for determining which ancestors contributed to your X chromosome. For a male, only his mother contributes an X chromosome. For a female both her mother and her father contribute X chromosomes. Parts of those chromosomes will be inactivated but the X can still be used for genealogical purposes.

I have 24 people who match me on the X chromosome at 23andMe through Relative Finder and Ancestry Finder. Neither FTDNA nor SMGF have published their X chromosome databases. GEDMATCH allows FTDNA customers to match their X chromosomes to other GEDMATCH participants. I haven't heard of anyone else having as many matches, but I am sure there must be someone who does. At this time I can only confirm three of the matches with one 1st cousin and with a 3rd cousin once removed and her daughter. I share a surname in the 1600s in Germany with a mother and her two sons. But since that surname is not contributing to the X chromosome before 1830, the assumption is that there is a closer link than that surname.

There are 5 and 6 generation charts for both males and females on the page. Below are the people, with their ancestor chart number, who would be on my 6 Generation Chart on the linked page with the percentage of X chromosome contribution expected from each.

Tuesday, August 02, 2011

I'll repeat a post I made at 23andme on comparing success rates at both:

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Colonial American ancestry: Jamestown, Boston, Cambridge, Hartford, New Haven Colony, New Amsterdam, New Sweden, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. Then spread out to North Carolina, South Carolina, both pre-Rev War; then Tennessee and Kentucky, post-Rev War.

at 23andme I have 1050 RF matches and have confirmed 7 of those.

at FTDNA I have 175 FF matches and have confirmed 10 of those.

Two of my confirmed matches have tested both 23andme RF and FTDNA FF.

I have 20 separate X Chromosome matches in RF and AF. That counts repeated people only once.

I have no immediate matches at FTDNA. I have 54 close matches and 121 speculative matches. My closest confirmed matches are two 4th cousins.

I have two known 1st cousins at 23andme and two unresponsive 2nd cousins. My closest confirmed match at 23andme is with a 3rd cousin once removed and her daughter.

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If you haven't done any tests I recommend starting at 23andme and then, when FTDNA opens the program, transferring your results to FTDNA. That way you get genealogical matches from both companies, you get mtDNA haplogroup and if a male, Y DNA haplogroup, and X chromosome matches at 23andme plus health info.

At FTDNA you get genealogy matches and when they get it ready, X chromosome matches. You have to pay separately for the Y DNA haplotype and haplogroup and the same for mtDNA. So from a cost perspective it is lower cost to start at 23andme and transfer to FTDNA UNLESS you also want detailed Y DNA /mtDNA readings.